History Today

Mark Clapson looks at how Victorian morality drove the pleasures of betting underground, and relates the various devices that enabled the working-classes to sustain the reputation of a nation of gamblers.

Christopher Abel on the often dangerous work of academics in Colombia

Maurice Hilton discovers a message of European cultural unity in a splendid Baroque doorway in Prague.

Rosemary Laurent discovers a British outpost in the south Atlantic.

Hugh Dunthorne on how bowls, billiards, skating and other pastimes shed light on the society and culture of the Dutch Golden Age.

Tony Judt argues that the new cultural and economic themes taken up by historians of modern Europe have left Marxism as only one of several competitors in Clio's marketplace.

Akbar Ahmed looks at the legacy of a Moorish past for the present Spain.

Maurice Keen describes how, in the years around the Peasants' Revolt of 1381 Robin Hood emerged as the legendary hero of the common people of England.

Robert Service looks at how Gorbachev's revolution has left an open agenda for Soviet historians.